The Pima County Recorder’s Office says a new verification system for mail-in ballots delayed processing time in Tuesday’s primary election by creating additional steps.
The intention of the ID Verified Early Ballot Drop Off system was to help speed up the tabulation process for ballots turned in on Election Day by bypassing the standard signature verification that’s completed by the Recorder’s Office.
During the primary election, the Recorder’s Office was responsible for early and emergency voting sites and the Elections Department was responsible for polling locations on Election Day.
County officials said that the Elections Department ID verified about 6,000 early ballots on Election Day out of about 12,000 ballots that were dropped off.
Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly told AZPM that the office implemented the ID Verify option during the countywide Regional Transportation Authority election in March and had received many complaints about how voters were approached with the ID Verify option.
Some voters felt singled out, discriminated against or even racially profiled. Some said they were made to feel as if it were mandatory.
Another issue that came up was language that voters used when requesting the ID Verify system. Many requested early voting staff to “signature verify” their ballot.
Cázares-Kelly also noted that while signature verification is only conducted by specialized staff at the ballot processing center, it will be training staff to interpret that language as a request to ID Verify in the next election cycle.
In a separate statement Cázares-Kelly said, “As a reminder, this was a legislative change made without meaningful input from the election officers in Arizona.”
